Chinese Customary Part 2: Dinner Reception

I am exhausted when I reach the bridal studio. Shelby said I looked sick. Not enough of sleep and always in rush are the main culprit. 

Almost fall asleep when Penny doing 2nd make up for me, I wish I can take a sip of hot coffee, but most of the stores already closed, so I have to tolerate..

By the time I finish my make up at 730pm,  it is time for me to proceed to the restaurant.

We reached the restaurant around 8pm, apparently the restaurant already reserved a parking lot for us, so we do not have any issues in looking for parking lot. The bridal car just stopped in front of the restaurant.

Most of the guests have reached, so it is time to march in. I almost fell down when I climb the staircases and marching in, cause I step my gown accidentally. Mr Koh and I are lost cause no instruction is given. 

Anyway, we just stopped at the VIP table. 

The servants serves the foods once we sit down. Dinner starts at 810pm, consider pretty early! =x

The 2nd highlight of the night is the champagne pouring & toasting. They have prepared 2 bottles of champagne for us. Mr Koh has no problem in opening it, but I cant open it without Mr Koh's help.

The toasting is fun also, we invited 20-30% of guests to stage to join us for toasting. I think my guests are really happy & excited, they couldn't hold their glass properly, end up my gown is stained with their champagne. The "Yum Seng" is really really fun! Thanks to my future brother in law and Mr Koh's brothers, I have a very long winded "Yum Seng". 

The dinner ends at 10pm. My parents, Mr Koh and I lined up to thank our guests from coming.. 

Seriously, this dinner doesn't seem like our wedding dinner, it is like we are attending my sister's wedding. My sister and Yee are pretty active tonight, even my relatives have the same feeling.  

Anyway, today ended very fast! 

I am married but I don't have much feeling =x 

  

Chinese Customary Part 1: Tea Ceremony

Today is my BIG day, I am having my tea ceremony (for my parents side) and dinner bouquet today!!

Wake up very early in the morning to accompany my mother to market to collect lotus (must have a lot of babies one - it means 儿孙满堂) and some cakes for guests, groom and his "brothers" to eat (before gate crashing).

I also bought some accessories (wig + hair clip, pacifier, paper) for the gate crashing.

We reach home around 830am, OMG.. The photographer, videographer and make up artist will reach at 9am, and I haven't bathe yet. I think I better inform the videographer and photographer to come at 930am.

When I just finish cleaning up myself, the make up artist is here. 10 minutes later, videographer and photographer are here also. They took few photos of us, and took some photos of the "Jie-Mei"s.. the "Jie-Mei"s are preparing the games.. everyone is busy, busy, busy!!

When I almost done with my make up, my mother asked me to go down to have lunch together with my parents and all my siblings, it means 一家人一起吃饭，报答父母.. I have to feed my parents and my sister, and my brothers have to feed me.. I didn't know Chinese have this tradition..

It is almost 11am, so now is time to change and do my hair! They are coming soon..

By the time the make up artist finished her work, they have reached! I can feel my heart beat has increased!

Everyone is so excited, JM are all busy preparing and discussing how to "pressurize" the groom... My parents and aunties are all busy preparing to pray, and prepare the tea ceremony!

After 30 minutes of "waiting" time ( I wait lonely in the room), they finally start to do the gate crashing.  I am hiding at a corner eavesdrop their conversation, it is so funny! Haha.. I really want to get involve, but I can't.. Cause this is my wedding!

I am bored, so I read comic books in my room! The comic books help me to relief the stress.. I find it very very funny, a bride hide in her room to read comic books! hahaha...

Finally they reach the door step of the room, they knocked the door. Should I open the door? What if I refuse to open the door?? After few seconds, I decided to open the door..

Happy to see him, cause he made it!

After exchanging the rings, we all went down to get ready for the tea ceremony!

I didn't know I have so many relatives! The whole tea ceremony took us about 30 minutes to complete! Happy and bless to see some distance relatives put in their efforts to attend the tea ceremony!

The tea ceremony ended at 1.45am,  bride, groom,  my bridesmaid, his best man and all the JMs and XDs return to his house.

Spent around 20 minutes there to do some praying, and took few shots.. After that, we just went back to  my place to have lunch. Everyone is hungry!

In total, we took almost 3 hours to complete gate crashing and tea ceremony, and 3 hours only for my side.. not included his side of relatives...  Tiring process..

By the time we finish our lunch and return to his place, it is almost 4pm. We need to reach the bridal studio by 530pm... OMG!!

It is already 430pm, and I just finish removing my make up..  Not enough of time, I need more time!!

I am exhausted!!

Time to prepare...

MUA is doing make up for me now~

Time to get excited! Lots of things are not yet ready..

Dont worry so much, everything will go smoothly..

Another 25 minutes to 7-Dec-2010 ♥

The buffet reception for tonight is very successful!

Total number of turn out more than 300 pax, and some of them are still singing NOW!

Tomorrow is my BIG day!

Happy & Excited~

Tired!!!

I am very tired.. and Mr Koh is exhausted also..

Too many things to settle within a day..

Just had some conflicts with my mother..

When you are tired, you lost control of your temper and emotion..

Sorry.

I'm getting married..

I am getting married..

Finally I can feel the excitement of getting married..

I am a bride to be, can't believe it!

I like the feeling of wearing wedding gown, it makes me like a princess..

I am so happy now..

2 more days to go!

Another 2 more days to go, but I am tired, having bad headache now..

Too many things to prepare, I have some conflicts with my parents.

They have printed another set of invitation card, but the card cant be used at all, cause the content is confusing. I don't understand why they never check the card, and the printing vendor also sucks! The invitation card (for wedding and buffet reception) are totally unacceptable! So, they ended up paying xx amount to get a stack of cards that are not usable. WASTE MONEY!

Initially I want to get the wine, hard liquors and soft drinks myself, but my father bought them without my knowledge. I feel upset cause I already told them I will prepare for it.

I know they have spent xx thousands on my wedding and I feel embarrass! Thats why I wanted to buy those loose items like liquors, wine, drinks, settle the ang bao myself.

Even ang bao my mother also prepared for it!

I know I should be grateful of having such a helpful parents, but this is our wedding not theirs.. I dun want them to spend so much!

Another 2 more days to my wedding, but I am not happy at all.. I feel stress, tired and depress! Cause there are too many unknow things, things are totally out of my control. Even what time he has to fetch me I also dunno! What the fuck is going on!

Wedding Preparation, 3 more weeks to go

Went down to Chinatown alone to purchase some of the items from those traditional bridal stores.

Spent more than hundreds to get few items, EXPENSIVE!

I still need to buy bowls, pajamas, slippers, a tray to hold 8 mandarin oranges..

3 more weeks to our actual day..

Wedding Cake Distribution ♥

Initially wanted to accompany my parents to distribute the cakes on 5-Nov to 8-Nov, but mum said the auspicious day to distribute wedding cakes is 11-Nov, so I can't join in the fun!

So today they will distribute the cakes and cards to my relatives and their friends.

Luckily my parents are willingly to help.

H.S.H Day 3: Stress

Today we need to settle a lot of things, we need to choose album templates, album cover design, frame, photos, hand bouquet, car decoration, guest book design, actual day gown, evening gown and coat.

Stage 1: Actual Day Attires Selection
First thing to do is to confirm on my actual day gown. Elaine show me a gown with butterfly design. The gown and the butterfly place card looks like a set.  So, I decide to have this as my actual day gown.

As for the evening gown, initially the red color evening gown will be my actual day evening gown, but Shelby suggested me to try the purple color evening gown and actually it looks great on me..

So my actual day gowns will be different from photos one, wonder how will I look like with make up & hair styling..

Stage 1 clear!

Stage 2: Album Cover Design
We already have some design in mind, so we just tell them what we want. We manage to clear this stage in less than 20 minutes! We are efficient!

Stage 3: Hand Bouquet
Previously I wanted to have lily as my hand bouquet, but the planner told me it will costs me more than SGD200. Reason is lily has to import from oversea. So I have no choice to give up my Lily and use artificial roses as my hand bouquet (SG).

KG surprised me with the wide range of hand bouquets. They actually provide lily! I fulfilled my dream of having lily as my wedding bouquet.

Stage 4: Album/Photo Design Template
To save designer's effort & time, KG actually provided 100 templates for client to choose, so the designer will design the album based on client's taste. This is a very smart trick! So if the design is not nice, they can push the ball back to client. If the client want to change the work, you have to pay additional RM300..  expensive!

So after browsing through the whole stack of templates, we manage to choose 20 out of 100++

They said the designer will try to design the album based on our selection, so lets cross our finger,  everything will look perfect~!

Stage 5: Stress........ Photo Selection
In total, Shelby took 433 photos yesterday.  50/433 = 1/8! OMG... how to choose?

1st round: We selected 230+ photo.. but still alot.. So we went for lunch to catch a breathe..  how how how??

2nd round: After few rounds of discussion, 86/230+ are our cup of tea. but 86 photos still alot.. Our package only can choose 50 photos, so I need to pay additional RM360 for 36 photos.

3rd round: Due to the additional 36 photos,  Elaine recommended us to get a new medium size album, and it is cheaper than adding pages to existing albums. I do agree with her.. So in total we pay RM1000 for a new album, here is the breakdown: RM360 (36 photos) + RM150 (Designer's work) + RM700 (20 pages) = RM1010 - RM10 discount = RM1000

Now, my package become RM1995 + RM1000 = RM2995, still cheaper than Bali one..

4th round: I requested to have the raw copies of all selected photos, but Elaine misunderstood my intention and called her boss for quotation of all the photos. The boss charge me RM600 for 433 photos! We are shocked but still reasonable (if compare with SG). So.. we just keep quiet..

Stage 5: Bed frame photo, photo for parents, post card and guest book..
Another headache again, but the pain is lesser than previous one. So clear it easily.

Final Stage: Should we purchase all the raw photos?
We really like the photos! So I told myself if I manage to bargain the price from RM600 to RM500, I will get it. To try my luck, I asked Elaine again and she is ok with the deal. Mr Koh and I are damn shocked, we couldn't believe it. It is such a good deal,  1 photo = RM1.50, damn cheap! So my another RM500 gone... *cry*

Stages all cleared! Time to go home~

30 days to go..

Oh No! Another 30 days I will become Mrs, stress.. Wonder what is the feeling?

H.S.H Day 1: Gown & Venue Selection

Mr Koh and I went down to Keep Gallery to choose my gowns for tomorrow shooting. Although I have chosen 4 gowns during the last visit, but I do not like the "Orange" color evening gown. It makes me look tanned!

After trying more than 5-7 gowns, I have decided on the cheong sum.

Beside gown fitting & selection, we need to decide on the venue. Initially I want to go Ipoh Railway Station, Sunway Lagoon, Kelly Castle and a place with lake. After the assistant showed the "ready made" photos to Mr Koh, he rejected the idea of going to Railway Station.

So after few rounds of discussion, we decided on the route: Indoor  -> Red Bridge -> Clock Tower -> Kelly Castle.

Now is time to go shopping (need to buy a pair of Man-U jerseys) and collect our wedding invitation cards =)

Time to enjoy~

I am a lucky bride

With my parent's help,  banquets held in my hometown are almost settle.

They have printed the wedding invitation card, although I don't like the design and quality.


They have booked the restaurant and accommodation for Mr Koh and his family members.

Now they are still looking for buffet vendor and a date to  过大礼.

Thanks god, things are almost done for Ipoh side.

Oh No!

Mr Koh filed our notice of marriage, and the appointment date for VD/SD is 7th Dec 2010, it crashes our actual day, how how how???

Change appointment date for VD/SD
1.	How do I go about changing my appointment date for VD/SD?
	Strictly by appointment only (please do not change the appointment as otherwise a marriage licence would/may not be granted for solemnisation to take place).